GoldWave supports both hard drive based editing and memory (RAM) based editing. These features are described below. Memory storage is enabled by default. Use Options | Storage to configure the storage mode. For uncompressed files, GoldWave will read the audio directly from the original file. It does not copy a file to temporary storage until it is edited or modified. The original file is not changed until it is saved. For most compressed files, the data has to be decompressed to temporary storage when the file is opened.
Working with compressed files may take much more storage than expected. MP3 files, for example, have to be decompressed into temporary storage before GoldWave can edit them. Such files may require over 20 times the amount of compressed storage when opened. A 10MB MP3 file could require over 200MB of storage space.
In hard drive based editing, the entire sound is stored in one or more temporary files on your hard drive where it can be modified. This allows you to edit huge files provided the required drive space is available. Only a small amount of memory is required for each opened sound. The drawback is that editing and effects processing take more time since audio data must be transferred to and from the drive.
In memory (RAM) based editing, the entire sound is stored in your computer's memory. This allows you to edit and process files very quickly. It saves time and reduces the load on your hard drive. The drawback is that the size of the files must be small enough to fit in the available memory. If you edit or record large files, Windows may start swapping memory to the hard drive, which significantly degrades performance and may cause defects when recording.
If 90% or more of physical memory is in use or if the amount of storage required by the file is more than 75% of the amount of physical memory currently available, then Hard Drive storage is used instead to preserve system stability.
Also note that in the event of a system crash, it will not be possible to recover a file stored in memory.